Catwoman Volume 1: The Game

This is one sexy comic! There are several panels that I gasped and had to show to my husband so he could join in the ogling.

The artwork is captivating and Catwoman is drawn very…curvy. She moves gracefully and oozes seduction; whether she’s undercover or in the middle of an epic battle. Sly and sexy, she is most definitely all I could hope for out of a cat-woman!

Volume one is packed with action and suspense. Catwoman loves testing her limits and living on the edge, and this gets her in over her head repeatedly! The writers do an excellent job of making me adore her so that I am effectively anxious when she’s in the process of placing her pawns and setting her plans into motion. I get duly hooked when things fall apart and she has to use her clever brain to improvise a new plan of action. I get heartbroken when things go south for her social life and she struggles with her guilt. I feel fulfillment when she gets her way, and excitement when she shrugs her shoulders each time and decides to throw caution to the wind and lunge right back into danger.

It seems that Catwoman brings all the trouble to herself by accident rather than actually looking for it. She has fun tempting fate and living it up with her stolen goods, but she repeatedly gets more than she bargained for. She may have some subconscious death wish, for she never opts to get out when she can, rather she pushes herself and the ones she cares about deeper into danger. She starts out by hurting some jerks out of revenge for wrongs they committed to her and/or her loved ones. She winds up stealing from a guy named Bone. He isn’t the most frightening villain, even though he looks to be made of stone. His body language and lingo puts him as a respectable, though maybe lower-level, mobster type. He takes a lot from Catwoman to make up for what she took from him and talks a big pity party excuse for why he’s so upset about her stealing from him. She is not impressed with his sob story and she talks like she has seen much worse than what he’s gone through in his life to work his way up the success chain. Bone makes the mistake of being just another guy who hurts someone she loves, and he does it in a way that makes me empathize with her longing to deal him out a vengeful bashing. I’m thinking all the villains in this comic are not all that great. Their backgrounds are either non existent or mundane. I don’t find myself hoping to see them again. Catwoman’s inner struggles and the troubles she causes herself make the main course of the central conflict, though, so I suppose I can get over these random villains being tossed in there simply to give her a face and a name to embody the conflicts and project them out where we can see her fighting them. It seems the villains are more a means to an end, but not interesting characters that can stand on their own.

Catwoman repeatedly goes around with Batman in this story line. When they’re not rolling around with erotic intentions, it seems the main quarrel between them is when she puts herself and others in more danger than he can get them out of. I get the impression that Batman looks the other way for the kinky little temptress, and her swaying hips have certainly earned that from him, but she just keeps getting in over her head and that winds up putting the caped crusader into a crises of conscious. I think he can tell himself that ignoring her cat-burgling is fine because he’s more about stomping out violent crime and intimidating thugs, but when her shenanigans start people turning up dead he isn’t able to turn away as easily. Though it seems he is not one to victim blame, the criminals come after her because she’s stealing from or messing with them. He likes to work alone and doesn’t have any interest in being some kind of twisted, and often selfish, Robin Hood in the way that Catwoman is doing. I think he’d like it better if she would stay small time and easy to ignore, or maybe even if she would retire and cat burgle her way into his mansion (and bed) every night instead just so she would be safe. Then he wouldn’t have to worry about her safety or the safety of others she puts in danger and then, as a result, he has to rescue those she seeks vengeance on later. I could see how their agendas can sometimes coincide to cause them to work together, but it is clear in this comic that Batman isn’t able to trust Catwoman’s unpredictable and deadly behavior. She is one vengeful murder away from getting on Batman’s eternal bad side, and it is a sad, but I think necessary, part of Catwoman’s plight.

This same theme has worked for so long in complimenting Batman’s inner struggles so that the reader can be pressed into deeper thought on the shaky border of right and wrong and how blurry that line can sometimes be. The Game is doing an excellent job of bringing up all those age-old questions in the Catwoman/Batman world that cause us to reflect long after we set the book down. Especially when taking into consideration Gotham City’s signature corrupt police force, who also give Catwoman a lot of trouble. If the justice system isn’t the honorable way, then who is actually the good guy, or is there really one at all? Could it be that the most lovable villains are actually the just force? Is Batman wrong for sparing Bone’s life when Catwoman wants him dead? Is it really right to leave Bone for the corrupt system to punish or release at their whims? Is that justice, or protecting the criminal? Is Batman living in a fantasy of justice, or do his no-kill morals and ability to walk away from his own longing to overreact out of vengeance keep him even more pure and human than the corrupt cops? Does it matter not what the corrupt choose to do and only that the vigilantes stick to their codes? Batman holds himself accountable, and it is clear that he will hold Catwoman accountable in the same way. Now, is it fair for him to do so? Is he trying to protect her? Should feminists be offended by this fatherly attitude from a man toward a potential lover? Should moralists’ heads explode while trying to decide which one of the characters in Catwoman’s world is actually in the right; if any at all? What does that mean for our own world out here in reality?

Speaking of the corrupt police force, someone on the force hires a woman named Reach to go after Catwoman after the feline thief swipes some money meant for their dirty bad-cop hands. Reach has the ability to manipulate gravity. Their battles are…well…sexy, and very painful. I would not want to tick either of these women off. If I showed up to a party and happened to be wearing the same dress, I would totally go change before they noticed, because scratching and biting to them are a world different from what I’d think a civilized cat fight should entail.

If I had to pick something I like the least about this comic, I’d say that I don’t believe Catwoman’s face necessarily has to look so, very twisted and ugly when she is crying or frustrated. Several times she goes from steamy-hot leather-clad dominatrix to seventy year old constipated librarian. (And not the cute-nerd librarian type, either.) I found myself cringing and going to the bathroom mirror to mimic my own upset emotions just to make sure I did not have the same condition. However, this didn’t put me off from enjoying every page.

It gets a pretty violent in some places, and I was shocked at first because I wasn’t expecting it. I like the occasional angsty blood bath, though, and I’ll be ready to appreciate it more when I pick up volume two!! I recommend this comic to all Catwoman fans!! To get your copy, you can click on the picture at the top, or go here.